Daily Archives: November 12, 2010

A few months back , I had asked myself a simple ‘What’ question. I asked ‘ What is Cadburys?’ I was moved. Now I am talking about the Cadburys that we knew before Amitabh Bachchan gave a lift to the lady in the rain in his Merc and said ‘Arey Kuch meetha ho jaaye, Haain’ and continued to pave way for the disastrous Miss Palampur ensuring that the ‘Meetha Moments’ turned into one of its totally ‘Unmeetha moments’, I mean even a Lux Cozi ad with Sunny deol was planned with more grey matter.

Then as we all know, Amitabh became invisible in an ad, didn’t help. Then he distributed Cadburys celebrations to his old friend and then the Miss Palampur fiasco. I get shivers when I even recount those ads. Drinking a beer would have been a better option. ‘Pappu paas ho gaya’ was the only ad that was true to Cadburys heart, it stood for simple and genuine moments. And add to the fact that Pappu was a stronger character than Amitabh in the ad.

‘Pehlee Taareek’ doesn’t even deserve any mention. It was as if an FMCG brand manager took the call to reposition Cadburys to a Purchase cycle activity. CADBURYS INTO A PURCHASE CYCLE PRODUCT! Holy god! I was turned into an atheist for a brief while after that.

Hop, Skip, Jump to 2010. Our side partitioned, checked shirt college guy walks into a bus stand to find a wide eyed teen in pink munching her chocolate, which mysteriously returns back when she offers it to him, and offers to drop her home. Nice music, simple details and we thought probably Cadburys was finally thinking ‘Simple’. They stretched it a little bit with the ‘Shub Aarambh Jeans’ campaign. But still it wasn’t on your face. Diwali saw little chocolate dipped cars and refrigerators going around in the Cadbury commercial pleading you to buy Rs 10 cadbury before you brought your 6 lakh car. FINE. Positioning of ‘For a better start for the auspicious occasion’ is better than their previous positioning or lets say de-positioning attempts. But Honestly, and I mean with utmost Cadbury honesty, ‘Auspicious’ for me is a slightly complex situation to associate with a Simple purple wrapped smile inducing cocoa.

Then I saw this. And I cant believe that they are falling into the same trap as they did with Amitabh Bachchan.

– Cadbury was about ‘simple genuine happy moments’ – trying to get the wrapper off with mehendi in hands, dancing in the field and making a joke out of yourself, Tapping your briefcase and smiling at the skies, while the cobbler was polishing your shoes. It was about ‘ Khamakaa muskuraaon, khamakaa gungunaoon, khamakaa chalta jaaon’ moments.

– Never about crying faces, it was all about anxious and happy faces. It was the kid in every elder smiling in a Cadbury commercial. It was never about ‘ Complex, fake, overdramatized moments’.

– And most bloody chocolatey importantly, Cadbury is not collective happiness. Never! Cadbury is small individual moments of happiness. That is where the entire exotic beauty of the brand lies.

SHUBH AARAMBH but DUKHATH ANTH. R.I.P. Did i say shubh anth in the title? No chance.